Discourse vs Element

Discourse (The 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet.) and Element (Founded by the creators of Matrix, we build digitally sovereign, secure and interoperable real-time communication solutions for large organisations.) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Discourse and Element sit at essentially the same overall ecosystem score (50), which is unusual and worth reading through the pillars below.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), Element is ahead of Discourse. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Element is slightly ahead of Discourse. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Element is ahead of Discourse. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Element is clearly ahead of Discourse. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Discourse is clearly ahead of Element.

Discourse carries 55,678 GitHub stars across 620 public repos, with 90 repositories active in the last 90 days and 44 external contributors on record. Element shows 34,608 stars across 137 public repos, 33 active in the last 90 days and 97 external contributors.

Discourse is the stronger read for anyone weighting momentum. Element looks better where reach is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.